Volume 7 Chapter 56 - Donât Offend The Frestech Chamber Of Commerce
Xu Yi promising to support the Rudson Kingdom wasn’t just empty talk.
A week after he met with Duke Boris, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce and the Rudson Kingdom announced together that two iron mines and four Magic Crystal mines in the northeast of the Rudson Kingdom had been sold to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
This statement didn’t seem that special at first because with the finances of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, it wasn’t a problem for them to buy several mines.
Moreover, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce has been wildly collecting mineral resources over the past few years. According to an incomplete data report, the iron mines that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce controlled whether openly or secretly numbered over three hundred. It could even be said that they were the company with the most iron ore and other mineral resources on the continent.
But in the later statement released by the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, it revealed the truth behind this matter.
The Frestech Chamber of Commerce stated that in order to better develop these mines, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce would be sending a division of their guards to guard these six mines. They would work with the local Rudson Kingdom army to protect these mines.
In order to provide support for the guards, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce would also be building a base right in the center of these six mines.
Just based on this, it didn’t seem that special.
But if one looked at the map carefully, they would notice that the base that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce was building was less than fifty kilometers away from the previous border with the Norton Duchy.
Because the Norton Duchy had already been annexed by the Candra Empire, once this Frestech Chamber of Commerce base was built, it would only be fifty kilometers away from the border with the Candra Empire.
The people who understood the situation of the continent could easily see that once the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s base was built, it would be a nail placed in front of the Candra Empire.
Although the Candra Empire and the Rudson Kingdom’s border wasn’t short, the only place that the Candra Empire could easily enter the Rudson Kingdom was the east border and the northern border.
Now that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had set up this base at the border and stationed their guards there, that was telling people that anyone who entered this area without the agreement of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce was an enemy. It was equal to setting up a forbidden zone.
If the Candra Empire tried to invade the Rudson Kingdom this way, they would definitely enter the range of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s guards.
Anyone could see that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce doing this was giving a warning to the Candra Empire.
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“It’s just a company and they dare to act this arrogantly!”
Emperor Candra had a dark look on his face as he read the report in his hand. There was a cold look in his eyes and he gave a snort that was filled with rage.
“This Xu Yi, he really thinks that he can act like this just because of a few military magic machines?”
The commander in chief of the Candra Empire army, the imperial marshal Campbell Sudman, gave a sigh.
“It’s a pity, but your majesty, this is the truth. Even Arch Magi can’t resist the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s military magic machines, it’s even more possible for a normal army to resist them. So just based on military might, it isn’t just our Candra Empire, but the entire continent that no one can deal with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s guards.”
“But they are still only a company in the end, aren’t they?” Emperor Candra asked, “Could it be that we can’t slowly wear down a company with absolute superiority in population?”
“That is impossible.” Marshal Sudman shook his head, “Your majesty, the army headquarters has performed a detailed calculation into this and the final results are that the possibility of doing this would be close to zero.”
“Why?”
“First, I’ve mentioned it before. The Frestech Chamber of Commerce has powerful military magic machines that people can’t even imagine, so a normal army can’t face them at all. The only thing that can resist them would be military magic machines of the same level. No matter how many soldiers our empire has, as long as the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s guards still have supplies, they would only send themselves to a meaningless death.”
“You mean that the empire army can’t even harm the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s guards at all?”
Hearing this question, Marshal Sudman was silent for a bit before giving a long sigh with a desolate look.
“Your majesty, I am very unwilling to admit this, but this is the case.”
Emperor Candra also fell silent this time.
After several minutes, he finally spoke again.
“You said that this was the first reason, are there other reasons?”
“Yes.” Marshal Sudman continued with a nod, “Your majesty, you just said that you want to slowly wear down the Frestech Chamber of Commerce with our advantage in population and supplies. I just told you that there would be no meaning in having an advantage in population…….”
“So you’re telling me that we don’t have the advantage in supplies? How could that be possible? We’re a giant empire and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce is only a company!”
“Your majesty, it is because the Frestech Chamber of Commerce is only a company that they are more flexible when it comes to supplies, so they have the advantage over us. Of course, the main reason isn’t this, rather it’s that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s……advantage in supplies is even bigger than the disparity in military magic machines between us.”
“Is that so?” Emperor Candra deeply knitted his brows as he revealed a bit of disbelief.
“Your majesty, what do you think supplies refers to?” Marshal Sudman asked.
“This……” Emperor Candra was silent for a bit before shaking his head, “I’m not a soldier, so I can’t describe it well. But the so-called supplies should be preparing enough supplies and then sending those supplies to the soldiers.”
“Your majesty is wise. What you just said is the essence of logistics.” Marshal Sudman gave a slight nod of praise before continuing, “But if you think about it, you will find that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce has exceeded all the countries on the Sines Continent when it comes to these two aspects.”
“It’s that bad?”
“It’s just that bad.” Marshal Sudman said with a serious look, “The Frestech Chamber of Commerce has many factories under them, so they have a strong production capacity for any products. Just in terms of military provisions, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce can rely on a single bread processing factory that they built with the elves to provide a day’s worth of rations for five hundred soldiers in a day. When it comes to the most essential military magic machines, although I’m not clear on the specifics, I imagine that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce spends even more effort in maintaining the production capacity of these.”
Emperor Candra was silent with thought for a bit before slowly giving a nod.
“Then when it comes to transportation, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce has the Magic Cars, the Magic Ships, the Magic Airships, and all other kinds of magic vehicles. Whether it is by land, sea, or air, they have a method of transporting goods at high speeds. Although our empire has purchased a large amount of large transport Magic Cars, it is far from being enough. Most of our resource transporting is still done with the old method of using horse carriages. Not to mention the security and carrying capacity, we’re several times slower than the Frestech Chamber of Commerce when it comes to speed alone.”
Emperor Candra was silent for even longer this time. Seeing the heavy look on Marshal Sudman’s face and after knitting his brows to think, his face also became heavy.
In fact, as the Candra Empire’s emperor, he naturally understood the important matters of the Candra Empire to a certain extent.
However, before this, he always thought that while the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had advantages that the other countries and even the Candra Empire couldn’t compare to, they were still only a company in the end and there was nothing to worry about.
So before this, he had the att.i.tude of cooperating with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce. They could gain advantages through this cooperation, but they would never treat them as a true equal.
As for whether the Frestech Chamber of Commerce would dare overestimate themselves to take the Candra Empire as an enemy, even if they did, they would only lose a few benefits and would teach this company a good lesson.
But after hearing Marshal Sudman’s clear a.n.a.lysis and answer that had no hesitation, he finally realized that he couldn’t treat the Frestech Chamber of Commerce as a normal company.
This company really had an overwhelming advantage in military force that made it hard for others to imagine.
“So that means, Sudman, your conclusion is that we can’t directly fight the Frestech Chamber of Commerce right now?” Emperor Candra thought for a bit before asking this.
“Yes, your majesty.” Marshal Sudman nodded with an incomparably serious look, “We should try to avoid direct combat with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce as much as possible.”
“So we can’t even move against the Rudson Kingdom right now?” Emperor Candra then asked.
Marshal Sudman revealed a bitter smile, “The Frestech Chamber of Commerce have already made their statement. Although I’m very unwilling, considering the perspective of the empire, it’s better to reconsider this matter.”
“Alright, I’ll ask you one final question.” Emperor Candra’s voice sunk as he asked, “We cannot fight the Frestech Chamber of Commerce directly because you think that it is impossible for our empire’ army to be a match for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s guards. Then I want to ask, if the Frestech Chamber of Commerce invaded the empire, would our armies be unable to resist?”
Marshal Sudman’s bitter smile disappeared and he said with a serious look, “Your majesty! Even if we have to pay with the lives of all our soldiers, we won’t let anyone invade even a single inch of the empire’s land!”
“I’m not questioning your loyalty, I just want to ask you, can we defend or not?” Emperor Candra raised his voice as he asked this again.
Marshal Sudman was silent for a bit before slowly giving a strong nod.
“Please be a.s.sured, your majesty, attacking and defending are two different matters. The Frestech Chamber of Commerce wouldn’t be strong enough to invade the empire and Xu Yi wouldn’t be that stupid.”
“Very good.” Emperor Candra gave a satisfied nod, “Since we can’t beat the Frestech Chamber of Commerce on the battlefield, then we’ll think of some solutions from other angles. In the end, we have the giant Candra Empire behind us and there’s only a single company behind Xu Yi.”